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Wikigirls. Becky, Vicky, Rachel and Jamila. Wikileaks.org. Other sources of information. Julian Assange is the editing and chief of wikileaks.org .
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Wikigirls Becky, Vicky, Rachel and Jamila
Other sources of information • Julian Assange is the editing and chief of wikileaks.org. • He has lived in several countries and has made public appearances in many parts of the world to speak about freedom of the press, censorship and investigative journalism. • In 2010, he published Iraq War documents about American involvement in the wars.
Our research question • Wikileaks are just exposing official secrets like the media has always done. So is it right that wikileaks is being threatened with being closed down and prosecution. • What is the issue of Internet sites control in the UK in relation to Wikileaks (a site that exposes official statics)? • So we changed to should wikileaks as an internet service provider, have legal liability of its content posted by anonymous online users? • So we changed to should wikileaks as an internet information provider, have legal liability of its content posted by anonymous online users? • In relation to the video “collateral murder” in Iraq what are the audience’s attitudes to Wikileaks.org? • Final research question: In relation to the video “collateral murder” in Iraq what are media students attitudes to wikileaks.org? (Ethics)
Hypothesis • It is predicted that Wilileaks threat of being closed down and the prosecution of Assange is due to the general public of the UK believe that the leaks do more harm that good. Therefore we predict that more people believe that it should be shut down. • If Internet sites are liberal, then the UK government can’t control them. • If wikileaks post information up on there website, then as an Internet provides they should have legal liability of its content. • Due to the sensitive and shocking nature of the video we believe that people will support the benefits of Wikileaks.org. And want to become more aware of its content.
Aims First aims • To find out if Internet sites can be controlled. • To find out if Internet site control has affected any other sites/companies. • To find out if Internet site control is an invasion on freedom of speech or a security measure. • To find out who should have the power of controlling internet sites Second aims • To find out the reason as to why wikileaks doesn’t take legal liability of its content. • To find out if Wikileaks lack of liability has effected it reputation as a site. • To find out who should have the power of controlling internet sites content. Final aims • To find out if people actually use the site wikileaks.org. • To find out if the site is making a difference to people’s attitudes. • To find out if people take an interest in the site wikileaks.org once they knew of its existence.
Questionnaire research • Quantitative research method. • Obtaining the best answer. • Provide a standardized interview across all subject areas. • Recruitment questionnaire- • Complete accuracy is unattainable when gaining responses on peoples attitudes. • Structure- Start with general questions to prevent bias. Sensitive questions at the end. Classification questions at the end of the survey so not to disrupt with the flow. Avoided misleading questions. • Question type- open-closed. Closed. • Rating scales- Attitudes rating scale. Easy to analyse. Equal number of + and -. Don’t knows covered by natural. – Linkert scale ( RensisLinkert) Agree to disagree. Good for self completion questionnaires • Language- not challenging or threatening. • Ethics- Introduction crucial to co-operation. Name and broad subject area needed. • Self completion surveys: Avoided interviewer bias, interview mistakes and respondents are more honest. • However, nobody to help explain questions, ask for clarification or probe for fuller answers. • Difficult to achieve a representative sample when there is such a high degree of self-selection. Also low response rate. Information gained from the book Questionnaire design. By Kogan page.
Questionnaire Adjusted questionnaire: Have you heard of wikileaks.org? Yes no 2. Have you ever used the site wikileaks.org? Yesno 3. Have you heard of Assange the founder of wikileaks.org Yesno 4. Do you think the post up of videos on wikileaks.org are effective in exposing official secrets? Yesno 5. On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you engage in the posts on wikileaks.org? (ten being the highest, one being not at all effective)? We are a group of 4 students at Coventry University studying Communication, Culture and Media. We would like to take a few minutes of your time to fill in a questionnaire based around wikileaks. (Wikileaks is a site that exposes official statistics. It is a non-profit media organisation dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public.) 1. Have you heard of wikileaks.org? Yes no 2. How have you gained information about Wikileaks> TV Newspaper Wikileaks.orgRadioBlogs Facebook Twitter Other 3. In your opinion on a scale of 1 – 10 how effective has Wikileaks been at exposing official statistics (ten being the highest, one being not at all effective)? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4. Why do you believe it has been effective/non effective ?_____________________________________________________________ 5. Do you believe Wikileaks should expose information about the country you live in ? Yes No No opinion 6.a Should Wikileaks have legal liability on what whistleblowers post up ? Yes No No opinion b. Why do you believe this ?_____________________________________________________________ 7. In your opinion has Wikileaks lack of liability of its content effected of its representation ?_____________________________________________________________ 8. Who in your opinion should have the power of controlling internet site content ?_______________________________________________________ Name _________________________________Gender Male Female Origin_____________Age_____________
Final questionnaire Attitudes questionnaire • We are a group of 5 students at Coventry University studying Communication, Culture and Media. We would like to take a few minutes of your time to fill in a questionnaire based around attitudes of media students. It will be greatly appreciated. Thank you • Have you heard of cryptome.org? • Yes No • On a scale of 1 to 10 (one being lowest, ten being highest) how much information do you know about cryptome.org? • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 • Have you heard of wikileaks.org? • Yes No • On a scale of 1 to 10 (one being lowest, ten being highest) how much information do you know about wikileaks.org? • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 • Do you believe violence video should be shown in the news? • Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree • Do you believe violent video should be freely available on the Internet? • Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree • Gender and Origin
Questionnaire results • Have you heard of cryptome.org? • On a scale of 1 to 10 (one being lowest, ten being highest) how much information do you know about cryptome.org? • Have you heard of wikileaks.org?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (one being lowest, ten being highest) how much information do you know about wikileaks.org? • Do you believe violence video should be shown in the news? • Do you believe violent video should be freely available on the Internet?
Focus group research • Qualitative research. Primary source. • Kruegar 1994 states a focus group is “a carefully planned discussion designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment”. • Methodology- A form of group interviewing, with a semi-structured questioning approach which relies on participants responses. • Typically 6 to 12 people. As few as 2 to 5 in mini focus groups. • 1 Focus group doesn’t tell enough. Group should be of the same like minded individuals. • Moderator- designs questions, focus the group, keep discussion on track. Bias can be created by the moderators input. • Advantages: data quickly, assemble at short notice, allows reaction between respondent and researcher. Rich data. Flexible. React and build responses. • Limitations: not representative of the population, low attendance rate, dominate people, bias of moderator, open-ended hard to interpret. Focus group theory and practice (David W. Stewart) Using focus groups in research (LiaLitosseliti)
Focus groups Coding • Transcribed each focus group • Read through all the information • Read through again and pick out key themes. • Then wrote up key themes comparison between the groups. • Key themes: Negative reaction to the video overall, negative reaction to the elements in the video, male macho, dodgy, video games, Assange, government control, strategies and tactics, news and control, newspapers and control, video best for communication, can people make a difference?, use of wikileaks.org, future use of wikileaks.org, following future stories and whistle-blowers. • Video games- Group 1 one member stated “it was like the game “call of duty”. I think they make these games to desensitize you so when you do watch the news and when you see thing like the video you don’t feel that much remorse.” Group 2 stated “that males could relate it to a video game they played. But they are playing it in a fake reality.”
Secondary research; Censorship • The Great Debate: Should we censor the Internet? • A discussion held on 26 November 2002 with Speakers Bill Thompson, Ruth Dixon, Avedon Carol and Chris Evans. • Bill Thompson is a well-known freelance journalist, writer, commentator, radio broadcaster and consultant. • Ruth Dixon was responsible for developing the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) hotline from its launch in 1996. • Avedon Carol is author of Nudes Prudes and Attitudes: Pornography and Censorship. She is a member of Feminists Against Censorship. • Dr. Chris Evans founded Internet Freedom one of the UK's leading cyber liberties campaigns in 1996.
Should the internet be censored; the great debate • In summary, all four of the speakers were positive about the potential of the Internet and were wary of arguments for censorship, especially when it comes to the removal of legal material. • Thompson and Dixon, felt that there is a genuine need for regulation, especially when it comes to illegal material. • Carol and Evans, on the other hand, were of the view that freedom of expression needs to be defended and that people should be trusted to form their own opinions and make their own choices about what they view. • The panel failed to come to a consensus, but all agreed on the importance of continuing to rehearse the arguments in public.
Focus group 2 results • Key themes: Free and uncontrollable Internet , Communicate, censorship, hacking, who should censor, individual censor, threat of censoring wikileaks.org. • Hacking - One member from group one said that 'it was pure genesis how they do it.' Another member from group 2 mentioned “that they wouldn’t be able to stop this”.
Conclusion • Ourresearch has shown that nobody out of the 6 people studied had used the site wikileaks.org. Despite them being media students. What does this say about media students? All have gained their knowledge through other media institutions or had no knowledge at all. • Ourresearch has found that with the use of the video it has made a difference to the individuals studied as they believe it is shocking. However it would take a lot more for them to do something about it. And without being shown the video they wouldn’t have had been aware of such shocking information that can be posted up on wikileaks. So this poses the question does wikileaks have much power? From are finding it would show that it doesn’t. Therefore it poses another question Do government really have to be worried about wikileaks? From are research we have found no it doesn’t as not many people are aware of it existence, it aims or just believe that they can’t make a difference. • Ourresearch has proved that 5 out of the 6 people asked would take more of a interest in wikileaks.org content after watching the video, as they wanted to be more aware of what is really happening in the world around them, instead of censored information in the news and in newspapers. • The problem of censorship is due to the free, non-controlling nature of the internet. Many organizations and governments have tried to control sites and have failed. None of the people asked could come up with a solution to this problem. • We have asked ourselves if we would ever look into wikileaks after this project and the majority of us say would try as it is interesting. But the site is far to complex for us to understand it fully.
